Stocks flatline on profit taking

The stock market closed flat last week that ended Thursday with turnover remaining sluggish as investors sold shares to net short-term profit on certain stocks.

The week featured four trading sessions instead of five as the market remained closed on 14 April due to Bangla New Year-1421. Among them, two sessions ended on the red while two others closed higher.

Week-on-week, DSEX, the prime index of Dhaka Stock Exchange went up marginally by 6.19 points or 0.13 per cent to close the week at 4,598.92 points.

The other two indices also closed positive. The DS30, comprising blue chips, gained 27.52 points or 1.64 per cent to close at 1,703.16 points. The DSES went up by 14.71 points or 1.71 per cent to close at 1,034.93 points.

The port city bourse, the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), however, went down marginally with its Selective Categories Index, CSCX, lost 31.99 points or 0.35 per cent to close the week at 8,868.71 points.

The total turnover amounted to Tk 17.46 billion on DSE which was 31.57 per cent lower than previous week's total value of Tk 25.52 billion as this week featured one less trading session compared to that of the previous week.  

The average daily turnover for the week stood at Tk 4.36 billion, registering a 14.47 per cent decline over the previous week's average of Tk 5.10 billion.

"The market witnessed somewhat flat movement during this week because of the investors' indecisiveness and short-term profit taking attitude," commented International Leasing Securities in its weekly market analysis.

The expectation of superior earnings in the forthcoming quarters helped some particular stocks like Lafarge Surma Cement, Olympic and GP grab the investors' attention, said the International Leasing.

Meanwhile, fuel and power sector, particularly oil companies such as Meghna Petroleum, Padma Oil and Jamuna Oil demonstrated positive movement.

"The investors' activity, however, dropped as one session saw only two hours instead of four due to technical glitch along with a bearish outlook in some of the major sectors," it observed.

"Market ended the week flat as it had been trading within a range of 90 points (4560 to 4650) for last two weeks," said LankaBangla Securities.

"This seems to be a consolidating period for market. Which way market breaks out this range, will give an indication of next market direction," said the stock broker.

DSE executed T+2 trading cycle which is expected to increase market liquidity. Foreign currency reserve hit a record US$ 20 billion last  week which is enough to support 5 months of import value, the stock broker added.

"Mimicking last few weeks' psychological trend, investors' preference was mostly centralised to heavy-weighted scrips, especially Multinational Companies, last week," said IDLC Investments.

The sequential and active dominance from Large Caps prolonged whole week's momentum. While other Cap classes faced significant correction. Those neutralised each other and showcased prime index to behave mixed, it said.

Turnover declined slightly after the first day's technical glitch in DSE trading. Meanwhile, a segment of witty participants booked profit off and on from this bull-run of Large Caps and cyclical movements of smaller Cap classes, the merchant bank added.

The losers took a strong lead over the gainers as out of 299 issues traded during the week, 214 declined, 70 advanced and 15 issues remained unchanged on the DSE floor.

Among the major sectors, top gaining sectors of the week were Cement 11.13 per cent, fuel & power 4.3 per cent and tannery 4.7 per cent.

Conversely, top losing sectors were Ceramic 5.31 per cent, NBFI 2.86 per cent and General Insurance 2.54 per cent.

Telecommunications and pharmaceuticals lost 0.50 per cent and 0.33 per cent respectively while food & allied ended flat in red with 0.04 per cent loss.

A total of eight listed companies--Islamic Finance & Investments, BSC, Exim Bank, Takaful Insurance, International Leasing & Investments, Pragati Insurance, The Ibn Sina and Standard Bank--made corporate declarations during the week.

The market capitalisation of the DSE went up slightly by 0.21 per cent as it was Tk 2,941.62 billion on the opening day of the week and it stood at Tk 2,947.66 billion at the closing session of the week.

Meghna Petroleum dominated the week's top turnover chart with shares worth Tk 1.39 billion changing hands during the week followed by Lafarge Surma Cement, GP, Padma Oil and Olympic Industries.

The investors' attention was mainly centred on fuel and power, cement and telecommunication sectors, accounted for 19.28 per cent, 13.54 per cent and 10.58 per cent respectively of the week's total market turnover.

Meghna Petroleum was also the week's top gainer, posting a rise of 9.78 per cent while Jamuna Bank was the week's worst loser, slumping by 16.98 per cent following its price adjustment after record date during the week.